Ukraine fights back
Ukraine’s President, Volodymyr Zelensky, took to the streets of Kyiv today despite being Russia’s “number one target”, vowing to stay in the capital despite Russian troops closing in on the northern outskirts of the city.
The President, wearing the same khaki clothes in which he was seen in videos from a day ago, released a message on social media recorded by himself emerging from what appeared to be a bunker.
He called on the international community for more assistance to help defend the country from the Russian advance. In a video posted this evening, Zelensky is reported as saying: “We’re all here. Our military is here. Citizens in society are here. We’re all here defending our independence, our country, and it will stay this way.”
Russian troops are now understood to have reached the northern parts of the capital. Ukrainian residents – many of whom spent a sleepless night in bomb shelters, amid a barrage of shelling in the distance – are being urged by Zelensky’s government to do everything they can to resist the invading troops and “neutralise the enemy.”
While it could be their last day living in an independent state, the citizens of Kyiv are defiant. Some 18,000 machine guns have been handed out to volunteers. Alongside professional soldiers and Ukrainian tanks, dressed in just jeans and trainers, these ordinary citizens are now hiding behind trees on the streets, or manning checkpoints.
The government has also issued instructions for how to make Molotov cocktails. Other citizens are still taking cover in metro stations and bomb shelters, guarded by Ukrainian soldiers.
But President Putin is calling on Ukrainian servicemen to turn on their government. According to the Kremlin, Russia is ready for talks with Ukraine in the Belarusian capital of Minsk. Yet Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov is clear: no such talks can be held until the Ukrainian military lays down its arms. There’s no evidence that Ukraine would agree to talks on this basis.
Earlier today Zelensky paid tribute to the bravery of 13 border guards, who died defending a tiny Ukrainian island, just south of Odessa in the Black Sea. The men were killed after they refused to surrender to a Russian warship.
Zelensky is also piling pressure on European leaders to do more to slow the Russian advance. The visibly sleep deprived President asked them: “How you are going to defend yourself when you are so slow to help Ukraine?”
At Nato headquarters, Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg said on Friday that the alliance is deploying parts of its combat-ready response force and would continue to send weapons to Ukraine, including air defences. Stoltenberg told a virtual news conference that Nato is now deploying the response force “for the first time in the context of collective defence.”
What more can Western leaders be doing to help Ukraine?
Boris Johnson is pressuring the G7 to expel Moscow from SWIFT – the world’s largest international payments network. But the proposal is being resisted by Germany and Italy. Bill Bowkett has more on this.
Edward Lucas, a fellow at the Centre for European Policy Analysis, has a number of other suggestions for actions the West could still take. They include announcing snap military exercises in the Baltic Sea and Black Sea regions as well as closing all Russian consulates and trade missions to create “barebones embassies, nothing more.” We should also, according to Lucas, declare a sweeping programme of asset freezes on companies owned, even in part, by Kremlin cronies, delisting them from the exchanges in all Western financial centres.
And last but not least, Lucas said we should: “Apologise to Ukrainians, Estonians, Latvians, Lithuanians, Poles, Czechs, Slovaks (and Russians) for ignoring their warnings over so many years.”
Even if the West draws the line at direct military involvement, there is more it could be doing to make life tough for the Kremlin. Stripping Russia of the Champions League final, banning it from the 2022 Eurovision Song Contest and taking away its F1 Grand Prix is not going to be enough.
Look out for more on brave Ukraine and the challenge facing the West, in the latest newsletter from editor Iain Martin – landing tomorrow exclusively for members of Reaction.